Bewitching Baubles
by nxstalgia
Summary: It's their last Christmas at Hogwarts, and the Marauders can't think of anything more important than the Christmas tree. This is basically Christmas fluff. Happy Christmas everyone!


Only a fraction of the population of seventh years at Hogwarts had signed on to take the Hogwarts Express back to King's Cross. None of them had been Gryffindors, as they could all quite easily see tonight. It was Christmas Eve, four more hours until they could open their presents, and each and every one of them were determined to outlast the other.

Between themselves and themselves only, a few bottles of firewhiskey were being passed around. With the N.E.W.T's coming around, even the Marauders had calmed their daily pranks to weekly ones, though it might have been the work of a certain redhead James Potter had his eye on. That December, they had agreed not to go all out during Christmas. Their party was held two days before, once all the little ones had gone to bed. Tonight, only the seventh years were up, each leant against different pieces of furniture, which were pushed and shuffled around to form a circle around the Christmas tree.

And have you a Christmas miracle, James Potter ended up beside Lily Evans, hair stood up and glasses crooked as he chugged down Remus' eggnog. He had started the night by playing twenty questions with her, in an attempt to innocently "get to know her". "It's almost Christmas," James whispered to Lily, like it was their secret. Lily, who herself had grown fond of her fellow Head Boy, smiled.

"Is it?" she whispered back, feigning surprise. "I didn't know."

James grinned, a bright thing that Lily could grow to like. On James' other side, Sirius was singing a muggle Christmas song, his breath catching whenever the notes were too high. Merlin knows where he's heard that song—James thought Padfoot might have kept a working muggle radio somewhere in their dorm.

"What time is it, Evans?" he asked, smiling stupidly to himself. He had something planned specially for tonight, with the help of Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail. "We should start decorating the tree."

"The tree is already decorated, James," Lily said gently, gesturing to the ornaments that crowded pine branches. For a second, she wondered if Slytherins decorated their tree with green baubles. It wouldn't have been a very pretty tree with green baubles.

"Not Marauder style," Prongs grinned, stumbling as he stood up. "Moony! Get up here and explain to Evans what we've done!"

Remus rolled his eyes, too sensible to be intoxicated tonight. No, tonight, he wanted full memory of what would happen; it was bound to be something great. (He also didn't fancy a headache in the morning, unlike Sirius.)

"EVERYBODY AWAKE?" James yelled, earning a collection of groans and cheers from his classmates. Some lolled their heads, some sat up a bit straighter. James decidedly thought that this was the appropriate response. He pointed his wand against his throat, pulling Padfoot off the floor. "WE HAVE SOMETHING FUN FOR YOU ALL TO DO TONIGHT."

"Aside from getting drunk?" Frank Longbottom called out, his face pink as he curled an arm around Alice's waist. They were quite the pair.

"YES, ASIDE FROM GETTING DRUNK. Remus, if you please," James said, his eyes on Lily as Remus gave a half-hearted smile at Frank. James took a step to the side of the tree, making sure everyone could see what would happen. With a calm swish of Remus' wand, all the baubles and ornaments on the tree fell to the floor, a tumultuous cacophony of bells and shattering glass sounding through the common room.

"Oi, what the hell, mate?" Frank shouted, but James held his hand up.

"This is our last Christmas together, right?" James said, a funny look on his face. "And I don't want to get sappy, but these have been the best seven years of my life, with my mates and all."

"We love you too James," Wormtail called out, and the rest of the seventh years did the same.

"Don't get too gay, Prongs," Padfoot alone barked, taking a swig of firewhiskey. "I haven't given you your lingerie yet!"

"Did you just spoil my Christmas present?"

"Oh, I suppose I did." Sirius swayed where he stood, glaring at James. "I can't believe you did that!"

"What did I do?" Prongs asked, shaking his head when Remus punched his shoulder. "Never mind. We're going to decorate the tree ourselves! Pads?"

"Now you want me to do stuff for you," Sirius murmured, rubbing his temples. "What a big baby." Nevertheless, Sirius mumbled an inaudible "Accio", and a year's worth of Christmas baubles appeared in three trash bags, each as clear as diamonds.

"You're just going to make us work for Christmas?" Marlene McKinnon hollered from beside Lily. "What use is that?"

"Those aren't normal baubles," Lily intervened, squinting at the bags. James, looking quite pleased with himself, picked up a bauble. The instant it touched his fingers, the bauble glowed yellow. More than that, an image appeared in it, moving and dancing. It was a memory, of the Marauders and their Halloween prank. Lily snatched it from James' hands, studying it incredibly. "How did you-,"

"Remus isn't that bad on his feet," Sirius said loudly, throwing an arm around the werewolf. "Ain't that right, Moony?" Remus simply looked down at his feet, face glowing pink.

"Right," James went on. "Since Sirius is too busy seducing Moony-,"

"Hey!"

"-to tell you how this works, I will," James cleared his throat. "It was a fine Saturday morning, the same morning Gryffindor would win the House Cup from Slytherin. The sky was a terrific blue and the pitch was the color of leaves in the summer-,"

"GET ON WITH IT!"

"Right, right. Well, I was playing with the snitch I-er, borrowed, and I remember Moony saying something about them having flesh memories. That same week I had been invited to Dumbledore's lair-,"

"Office," Remus corrected.

"And I happened to stumble upon his Pensieve-,"

"You quite literally pried it from its shelf," Moony interjected.

"And being the clumsy soul I was, my head fell into the murky waters-,"

"You tried to dive head-first into the bowl-,"

"And I ended up in one of the old man's memories-,"

"He was snooping, truly," Moony mumbled.

"Remus Lupin will you let me tell them the story?" James said, shooting dirty looks at his best mate. Remus shrugged, his shoulders still trapped in Sirius' embrace. "Thank you. Anyways, it occurred to me we could pry out your memories and showcase them to the world, or at least to the rest of us seventh years. And of course, since we are not very into privacy, it would be by the touch of your flesh, like a snitch."

"So when we touch it, it projects our memories?" Lily clarified.

"Well, sure, if you want to put it that way," James pouted. "Thank you so much for discrediting my entire story, Evans."

"Always happy to help, Potter."

James extended an arm to help Lily stand, which she paused before taking, a slow smile settling onto her face. James gestured to the bag of baubles, patiently waiting their touch. "Ladies first," James muttered.

"Technically, you've already touched one just now," Sirius said loudly, ducking when James threw a pillow at his head.

"And I should kill you for your old-fashioned 'gentleman' act," Marlene said even louder, winking in Lily's direction.

Lily picked one up carefully, and she watched, transfixed, as it glowed a brilliant yellow. It was her and Alice, exchanging Christmas presents last year. Lily looked to Alice, who had tilted her head contentedly. "This is quite a bit of smart magic," she whispered. James shrugged, his hand jumping up to his hair.

"It, well-you know Remus, he-," James stumbled on his tongue, before Lily got on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"This is really nice, James," she said sincerely.

James coughed, neck flushed. He clasped his own bauble in his hand, ignoring the dozen pairs of eyes watching them. "Shall we hang them, then?"

Slowly, the seventh years watched as their baubles glowed. Happy thoughts glowed yellow, angrier ones red, and the foulest of them green. It wasn't until Frank picked one up that it glowed pink, a picture of Alice kissing his lips appearing. It earned a laugh from said girl, who hugged him tightly as the other boys yelled, "He's whipped!"

As the night passed, the ten foot tall tree was filled with baubles, each with new memories to watch together. Lily hung another yellow one of her and Marlene gossiping. Sirius hung a red one of Snape running away. Remus hung a pink one of him reading in the library as Sirius watched him. It had drawn eyes, but not more than the next one James plucked.

As soon as his fingertips grazed the sphere, it glowed pink. This time, it wasn't just one memory, but a series of them, each more precious than the next. Each of them was of Lily. Even the times she was shouting at him, face red and eyebrows pulled together angrily. Lily felt her eyes water at the sight of it.

"So there may or may not be one more question I have for you tonight," James said quietly, hanging the bauble up on the tree. It seemed to hang out more than the others. At least, to Lily, it did. "Would you-,"

It was a question Lily had heard an eternity's worth of times from James, but this time was different. James looked at her with such sincerity in her eyes that Lily couldn't quite possibly deny him anything. She had seen multiple sides of James—the Quidditch player, the Marauder, the shoulder to cry on—never had she seen this side, the one that cared for her so deeply, that she wondered how she had ever missed it before.

"Yes," she breathed. He hadn't even finished talking yet. He blinked, stupefied.

"Yes?"

"Yes."

"SHE SAID YES!" James said, beaming over Lily's head to where Sirius was hanging baubles.

"SHE SAID YES?" Padfoot squealed, as sound that earned a scoff from Remus.

"SHE SAID YES!"

"SHE SAID YES!" Padfoot repeated, turning around to jump onto Remus' back. "MOONY GRAB MY STICK."

"I beg your pardon," Remus said, flustered.

"NOT THAT STICK, MY JILY STICK!" Padfoot screeched, grinning when Wormtail passed him his 'Jily stick'. It was a single wooden branch, with a crudely taped mistletoe on one end. Sirius readjusted himself on Moony's back, holding the stick over James' head like he would an umbrella.

The fellow seventh years all watched on humorously, most continuing decorating the Christmas tree. This was the best piece of magic the Marauders had ever done, wildly beyond their years, and still, Sirius Black needed a tree branch to hold a mistletoe over their heads. The "Levi-Osa" lessons Lily had given him still hadn't worked out, it seemed.

Lily was obviously amused by it all, and a tad thrilled at saying yes. James looked down at her fondly, before looking up at the 'Jily stick'.

"It's a Mistletoe, Evans," James whispered, another secret for her to keep.

"It sure is, James," she giggled.

"That means you have to kiss me," James said seriously. Lily punched him lightly on the chest.

"You have to kiss me, you-,"

And James would never find out what he was—a dolt, a toerag, Merlin's sweaty knickers—but when Lily's hands found their way around his neck, he decided he didn't really care to find out.

That night, as the seventh years collectively dozed off, Lily stood up and picked up the last bauble in the bag, smiling tenderly when it glowed a soft pink. She looked to where James had fallen asleep on the couch, his mouth hanging open as his glasses fell off the bridge of his nose. A new memory formed, of their lips pressed together and the smile that she felt creep onto his face. She took off a green one she had hung up earlier, of her fight with Severus in front of the portrait, and she hung up the new pink one, admiring it with a peace in her heart she had never felt before. They would all see it in the morning, along with the rest of the memories on display. That was the thing about memories, Lily thought; they were meant to be replaced. 


End file.
